 - Last login: 5 weeks agoPersiana
- Shireen (Shirin) is a 32 year old married woman from Shiraz, Iran.
- Likes 4,942 pages, 229 videos, 387 photos • 763 fans • Received 261 reviews
- Member since Jan 04, 2006
I'll be posting links and photos of Iran's archaeological and historic treasures. I think they are fascinating and belong to all humanity. Viewing them teaches one a great deal about the history, beliefs, arts and ways of living of ancient people. 11 12 15 17 19 22 25 27 30..33
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Suez Canal Inscription
Darius named the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Pars (Pars = Persian)
I have translated the following article (source: CHN - Cultural Heritage News) from Persian:
Over 2000 years ago (more precisely about 480 BC), when Darius the Great [of ancient Iran] built the Darius Canal which eventually became known as the Suez Canal, he ordered an inscription to be engraved there in Egypt. That inscription contains the oldest reference in history to the Persian Gulf.
The Darius Canal connected the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean for the first time. The inscription of Darius, commemorating the engineering feat, is now held in the Louvre Museum of France.
The Suez Canal inscription is one of the most important documents that contains the name of Persian Gulf in an unambiguous manner.
That inscription, which manifestly declares the order of Darius the Great in digging the Canal, contains 12 lines and was written in the Old Persian language.
[...]
In the seventh line of the inscription the speech of Darius is stated as such:
"King Darius says I am a Parsi (Persian) from Pars (Persia). I ordered this waterway (canal) dug from the Piraveh River (Piraveh = ancient Persian for the Nile River) which flows in Egypt, by that connecting it towards the Sea of Pars (then known as the Sea of Persia--The Persian Gulf). Thus, I ordered this canal to be dug, and exactly as I specified it was dug, then the shipping convoy sailed from here, Egypt, to Pars (Persia) as I wished."
In the tenth line of the inscription the Ancient Persian words "Abi Darieh Tieh HechaParsa AeiTi" unambiguously refers to the "Sea of Persia" and there is no doubt whatsoever that the waterway called the Persian Gulf nowadays was then, in 500 BC, called the Sea of Persia.
[...]
The Greeks referred to the Persian Gulf as "Persicus Sinus" for the first time, which corresponds the same meaning: the Persian Gulf.
Since the name Persian Gulf was written for the first time in valid historical documents by non-Persians, no racial bias can be ascribed to the naming.
Straben (Eng: Strabo), the Greek historian of 1st century AD, has repeatedly used Persicus Sinus ("Persian Gulf") in his book to refer to the waterway. He mentioned that Arabs, on the other hand, lived between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf (That is Arabian Peninsula - needless to mention Iran is separated from that Peninsula via the Persian Gulf.)
As well, Flavious Arianus (Eng: Arrian - Thanks Zalmoxsis for the spellings), another Greek historian, in his book "The History of Alexander's warring adventures" refers to the waterway as "Persicun Keet" which corresponds to no other naming but the Persian Gulf.
**End**
I must add that the British were the first to encourage the naming abuse among the Arabs in the past few decades. Their aim had been to turn this waterway into a strategic British waterway. Later, in the 1980s some Americans followed suit trying to turn this into an American Gulf. The way to achieve those objectives: encouraging the use of bogus name of Arabi?n Gulf.
A few years ago they encouraged The National Geography to abuse the naming. After massive Iranian boycott and petition all across the world * the Magazine corrected its mistake and apologized. Last year, the Louvre Museum, under Arab sponsorship abused the naming. This time, only one letter from Iran's cultural heritage official was sufficient to remind Louvre of the naming on the historical maps & documents in their possession, which made the Museum to adjust back to the civilized norm. Currently, the most serious Western abusers are the BBC and the Google Earth.
NO to the uneducated, unscientific norm for the same reason of calling the English Channel as the French Channel would be wrong.
The UN only uses the historically correct name Persian Gulf - and that is it.
--> Acknowledgement - British Foreign Ministry
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